Firstly, you have said that the High Court itself asked you to file a protest petition in the local court. In this situation, the local court should not question your locus standi since this liberty has been granted to you by the high court. In any case, the victim of the offence has a local standi in his capacity as victim since he has suffered due to the offence.
Secondly, you have said that there are 80 victims of the same offence, but the complaint can be generally only by one person who may be a victim or may not be a victim himself. The complainant may file the complaint in a representative capacity on behalf of all victims or sometimes, similar cases of all other victims are subsequently clubbed together in the same case. In such a situation, the victim has local standi in his capacity as being the victim, being the sufferer of the crime, even though he may not be formally the complainant.
In fact, recently, the Criminal Procedure Code was amended and victim’s rights have been expanded. Now, a victim has a right even to appeal against acquittal of the accused. He should similarly have a right to file protest petition under Section 173 of the Cr.P.C. if the police closes the investigation and files a closure report.
Since it is an established law that the FIR can be lodged even on the basis of the complaint given by a complete stranger (i.e., who may not be himself a victim) and such person then becomes the complainant. Giving a right to such complainant (who is a complete stranger to the offence) to file the protest petition, while denying the same right to the actual victim would be travesty of justice.
Therefore, I think you have a locus standi to file protest petition in your capacity as a victim. If the Magistrate does not agree with you and dismisses your protest petition on this ground, you can challenge his order in the high courts.
Dr. Ashok Dhamija is a New Delhi based Supreme Court Advocate and author of law books. Read more about him by clicking here. List of his Forum Replies. List of his other articles. List of his Quora Answers. List of his YouTube Videos.
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